System upgrade - where to start?

[Ayman Altounji]

As the users of our Proliant 3000 server machine (with a PII-300 and 256MB RAM) have started to notice degraded performance, I need to start looking at upgrades to improve this performance.

I basically need to know what options are open to me (i.e. HDs, RAM, CPUs), and what sort of costs we are talking about (in UK Sterling).

Where do I go/who do I talk to in order to find this information? I half expected Compaq to have some automated website that can detail upgrade options per serial number, but I couldn't find anything!

Thanks for your help.

[Ayman Altounji]

I've performed the same exercise on many of our older platforms. You should first start with the Quick Specs documentation for that particular server ftp://ftp.compaq.com/pub/products/servers/ProLiant3000-300T.pdf and review the Options to determine the correct Compaq part numbers (Memory, Processor, etc.) and since this is a retired platform you'll probably need to look for aftermarket sellers to obtain parts. I've used two companies here in the states that have been very good, Chestnut Micro (www.chestnutmicro.com) and Ambry (www.ambry.com). You can obtain boxed "new" equipment, refurbished or pulled components according to your liking and the depth of your purse. Some of the newer/larger (18 or 36GB) Wide-Ultra SCSI-3 HDDs may not appear under options, but they can be purchased as well and if you're already running hardware-based RAID on a SMART-2/P, 2/SL or 2DH you could consider replacing that with a SMART-3200 controller (295643-B21) that supports Wide-Ultra drives, but has considerably larger amount of read/write cache (56MB). Sorry for the detail, but if you need further assistance, feel free to contact me directly at scott.gunelius@pfizer.com. Cheers.

[Ayman Altounji]

Thanks for your help Scott. However, as it does not seem a particularly easy thing to do - to upgrade a retired server - we've decided to go for what will probably be cheaper in the long run. A brand new server.

It's a shame that there appears to be no easy way to upgrade an old machine through Compaq's website (I remember trying).